You are your own authority! Don’t believe a word that other people tell you about who you really are, not even Douglas…. especially not Douglas!
– Douglas Harding
I would change this quote slightly. I would say….
Allow your own sincere noticing to be your authority. Don’t believe a word anyone tells you about who you really are, and especially not what your own thoughts tell you!
– Mystery of Existence
This means not indulging in wishful thinking, ideologies, hangups, and so on. And instead follow what we notice when we explore with sincerity, receptivity, discipline, and persistence, and perhaps the guidance of structured inquiry – including the Headless experiments.
Clarification: When it comes to discovering what we are in our own first-person experience, it’s good to not trust any story, including what our own thoughts tell us. In other areas of life, it’s more of a balance between a healthy trust in our own faculties, gut feeling, and experience, and receptivity to the validity in other views.